


By Your Side

by weebish



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-20
Updated: 2018-08-20
Packaged: 2019-06-30 03:52:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15743697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weebish/pseuds/weebish
Summary: When Alphys makes a questionable post online, Undyne takes immediate action.





	By Your Side

“ALPHYS.” Undyne roared.

Alphys squeaked at her girlfriend’s sudden intrusion.

“Ah, um, Undyne! Sorry, I didn’t know you were coming! Uh, do you want a-anything to eat? I have some instant noodles…”

“WHAT. IS. THIS.”

Undyne held up her phone. On the screen was a post from Undernet, and – wait a minute, that was her post! In fact, she had just posted it half an hour ago!

The post in question was a picture of the trash can Alphys kept in her lab, with the caption “selfie”.

“Um…I think it’s called a trash can?”

Undyne scowled.

“Exactly. So, why exactly is it captioned ‘selfie’?”

Alphys fidgeted.

“Oh, well, you know, it was a joke…” she muttered.

“Explain it,” Undyne demanded.

“Um, well I wasn’t feeling very good about myself at the time I posted that, so, you know…it was just a little self deprecating humor.”

Undyne made a clicking noise with her tongue.

“Alphys, you know what Papyrus and I said about that. No. Self deprecating. Jokes.”

“B-but…they make me feel better!”

“Do they really?” Undyne asked earnestly.

Now that Alphys thought about it, they didn’t really make her feel better. Sure, they provided relief for a short time, but ultimately, she knew it was unhealthy. As Papyrus and Undyne had reminded her time and time again, she was giving in to that little voice in her head that told her she wasn’t good enough, vindicating her self hatred. No, in the long run, it just made her feel worse.

“Not really,” Alphys replied, shrugging her shoulders.

“Then I don’t think you should do it,” Undyne stated matter-of-factly.

“Yeah, I know…”

“Why don’t you ever post good things about yourself? Come on, list three good things about yourself.”

Alphys felt her face flush. She hated complimenting herself, she always felt like a braggart when she did it. Although she practiced it many times with Papyrus, she never got quite used to it.

“Um…I’m nice?”

“That’s a start.”

“I’m…I’m smart?”

She felt her blush deepen. She really hated doing this.

“Good! Now for a third thing!”

“Um…”

“Come on, Alphys! I can think of a million things!”

Alphys thought of a third good quality, but her mind was completely blank. She could think of many flaws: selfish, cowardly, dishonest, but nothing positive came to mind.

“I don’t know. Sorry,” she said at last.

Undyne punched Alphys in the shoulder playfully.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me! Alphys, you’re a freaking prodigy with science, you’re always kind to everyone you meet, you’re loyal, and not to mention you’re cute as hell too!”

“I’m n-not that cute…” Alphys trailed off.

“You totally are! Like, you know that show you like, the one with the cat girl you always talk about?”

“Mew Mew Kissy Cutie?” Alphys said excitedly.

“You’re as cute as the cat girl. If you were in an anime…you’d be totally…what do they call things that are super cute? Ki-kiwi?”

“Um, I think you mean ‘kawaii’.”

“Yeah, that!”

Undyne sighed.

“You know, if I could, I’d totally fight that little voice in your head, the one that says you aren’t good enough. But, unfortunately, I can’t exactly fight your thoughts, so it’s up to you to beat it yourself.”

“I…I know. I’m sorry,” Alphys said. She felt tears forming in her eyes. She didn’t want to cry in front of Undyne. That would just make her worry about her more, and honestly, Alphys wasn’t worth the effort of caring.

Undyne, noticing her tears, patted her on the back reassuringly. Of course, this being Undyne, she patted just a bit too hard.

That was definitely going to be sore later. Ow.

“Hey, there’s no need to be sorry, all right? I’m doing this ‘cause I don’t want to see you struggle like this.”

“That’s the problem. Undyne, why do you care?”

Undyne was clearly taken aback.

“Why do I care? Alphys, you’re one of my best friends, not to mention my girlfriend! Why wouldn’t I care?”

“I just…don’t think you should waste your time trying to make me feel better. I’m…I’m n-not a good person.”

Undyne laughed.

“ _You?_ A bad person? Alphys, you don’t have a single bad bone in you!”

“I’m made of dust. I have no bones.”

“That’s not the point!”

“The…the thing is,” Alphys said, her voice starting to shake,”I’m…I’m not a nice person like you think I am. It’s all an act. I’m a fraud. Deep inside, I know my existence o-only…only hurts people. But I keep on living anyway. I’m so selfish.”

The next thing she was aware of was Undyne holding her in a tight embrace. She looked up at her girlfriend’s face to see tears were brimming in the warrior’s eyes as well.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you cry…” Alphys apologized.

There she went, running her trap again, venting about her emotions without the slightest consideration to how others would react. God, why couldn’t she just keep these things to herself?

Undyne just squeezed her even tighter.

“No, there’s nothing wrong with saying how you feel. It’s better than keeping it bottled up inside of you. But…”

Undyne took a deep breath.

“I hate that you feel that way about yourself, Alphys. If I knew you had these issues earlier on, I could have helped you sooner. Hell, the warning signs were all there. I mean, from the moment I met you, you were always making self-deprecating ‘jokes’ like the garbage can one. You would always say how selfish you were, or how you were a phony deep down, and then cover up your confession with fake laughter.”

“Undyne…”

“Well, no more.”

Undyne stepped back and took Alphys’s hand in hers.

“Alphys, I promise you, I’ll always be there for you, no matter how bad things get, no matter how poorly you think of yourself.”

“W…why? Alphys asked.

“Because I love you,” Undyne replied sincerely, her voice shaking with emotion.

That was enough to make Alphys sob. Why didn’t anyone get it? She didn’t deserve love, especially not from someone as amazing as Undyne. She must have tricked her into thinking she was a good person somehow, must have made her mistakenly believe-

Her thoughts were interrupted with a kiss from Undyne.

“Alphys,” she said at last, “I’ll always be by your side.”

Alphys hugged Undyne, burying her face in her chest as she continued to weep.

She didn’t deserve this, she thought to herself. But at this moment, arms wrapped around the person she loved more than anyone and anything, she didn’t care about that.

Undyne’s words echoed in her mind.

“I’ll always be by your side,” she said.

Maybe she couldn’t conquer this crushing self hatred. But for Undyne, for everyone who loved her, she would try.


End file.
